Miyazaki Tsutomu Jiken

Have
you ever known someone who just kept hammering and pounding away at a point
long after it had already been made? Was his name Ichihashi Fumiya, by any chance?

Miyazaki Tsutomu
committed his abductions and murders of four very young girls back in 1988-89.
In the summer of 2001 his death sentence was upheld by an appeals court. It
is only a matter of time before he finds himself dancing a very short jig.

This book has
as its premise that a certain mysterious scenario (regarding motive) was deliberately
quashed by the police in order to make Miyazaki look like a monster and turn
public opinion against him. If in fact they did, it was hardly necessary. The
defense never argued that Miyazaki didn't commit the heinous crimes he was charged
with, and the crimes were more than enough to enrage the public without any
police manipulation.

About half of
the book consists of background information on Miyazaki as a child and a young
man. There are plenty of enlightening details about him and his world prior
to the murders. The other half, unfortunately, is dedicated to hammering the
reader with basically the same information over and over again in an attempt
to show how he has uncovered some behind-the-scenes police finagling and that
Miyazaki has only been faking mental illness in order to avoid ending his worthless
life swinging on a length of government rope. He never quite comes out of the
shadows enough to make the first point. He rails on and on about the second
point so much you almost with they'd free Miyazaki just to spite this guy. When
I got within 10 pages of the end of the book, I just really didn't care anymore.
I had to force myself to finish it.

If you're interested
in the Miyazaki case, look elsewhere. Give this one a pass.